Should I set up Amex Gold in my account using the temporary number?

[Anonymous]

Just a quick question - should I wait until the card arrives to add it to my account or can I add it now? I requested and received the number upon approval but it said the CVV was only temporary, and will be replaced by the actual number on the card. I’m just wondering if setting it up in my Amex account now, using the temporary CVV, will cause issues, like difficulty in editing the card info, when the actual card arrives. Anyone have input on this?

[KJinNC]

I would probably wait, to avoid the possible headache, but I don't know the answer.

Congrats on the card - and this may be a dumb question, but you seem to have some pretty good cards compared with your scores ... is there an X factor, like positive history with Amex? I ask because I get preapproved for nothing Amex.

[pinkandgrey]

I would definitely wait. Sounds like a nightmare trying to put in the “real” number lol. 

[Anonymous]

Adding the virtual # doesn't work.  If you have a CSR do it then it will populate.

[Anonymous]

Thank you - I’m leaning toward waiting as well. I just hate not having things squared away lol.

As for the cards versus scores, I got in with Disco with a 627, and got my first two Amex cards (DG and HH) the same day with a 638. I had a preapproval on Disco, who are known to like being your first “big kid” card (only majors I had at the time were Indigo and QS, which is a credit-steps Platinum that was converted to offer QS benefits). I cold-apped the Delta Gold on a whim and was approved, so I tried the Hilton card and got that too. After that, the Hilton Ascend, BCP, and Gold were gotten with preapprovals.

I think it comes down to a couple things. My utilization isn’t ideal at 31% but it’s not awful, but more importantly once I got into being an adult about credit, I never, ever missed or ended up late on a payment, and I always pay well over the minimums. On an Amex like my Delta Gold, with a $1000 limit, the min is $35. I’ll pay $150+. My Ascend currently has a $633 balance - I’ll pay at least $300 on that this month (we have a lot of hotel stays due to traveling for my wife’s medical care so this card gets a lot of use). As time passes and balances fall, more cards are becoming PIF. Currently I have 6 cards with zero balance.

My scores are suppressed mainly by old derogs - I have a couple paid chargeoffs that will fall away late this year or in 2020, nothing recent. I’ve cleared a lot of past mistakes and failures, and what remains are the ones I’ve had no success with in attempting to remove them.

Last, my oldest card is my Home Depot, opened in 2006, on which I have never missed or been late on a payment. Having a 13 year old open trade line has helped the age factors. That and my almost six year old Target card have helped me keep my AAoA above 3 years even with the slew of new cards the past 14 months.

I’ve been trying to practice as many of the ideas advocated on this forum as life allows, and it is working. Once I can clear the last derogs, I should shoot upward, but I think the recent 1-2 years of spend/pay patterns have helped a lot. They certainly have with Amex, having gotten 5 cards in 6 months with them. Now I’m cooling it and allowing everything to age while I work on increasing CLs.

[pinkandgrey]

---

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you - I’m leaning toward waiting as well. I just hate not having things squared away lol.

.

---

Out of your entire post, this spoke to me lol. I’m an insufferable control freak and procrastination is the DEADLIEST sin in my book. 

[Anonymous]

When I got my platinum card temporary number I set it up in the app. It didn't require any changes when the physical card arrived

[Anonymous]

@RealityBites, good to know. All the same, I’m gonna wait because knowing my luck, I’ll be the one whose account gets screwed up lol.

@pinkandgrey, I’m the same way with this stuff. I actually log into every account every morning and justify every balance against my spreadsheet. That is set up to calculate individual and aggregate UTI, changing as I change balance amounts, pay down amounts for each card to reach each scoring tier, tracking dates and amounts of CLIs per card, etc lol.

You and I are cut from the same cloth I think

[FinStar]

IME, I had no issues with using any of them whenever an immediate card number was provided, whether setting it up online right away or using mobile [Samsung Pay] wallet (CC updated automatically once the new CID# arrived with the actual card). I was also able to make purchases online right away without any issues.

Your call, of course, since everyone has a system or preference on things.

[Anonymous]

@FinStar, excellent. Nice to know that they update it automatically. I’ve toyed with adding it to Apple Pay (I’ve actually never used it). I may play with that.